


What Is And What Should Never Be

by Nyssa23



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Character of Color, F/M, Jealousy, Love Triangle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-15
Updated: 2010-08-15
Packaged: 2017-10-11 02:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyssa23/pseuds/Nyssa23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foreman lets slip a secret he should never have told.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Is And What Should Never Be

**Author's Note:**

> This is set during 3 x 17, "Fetal Position," and takes place right before the scene where House decides to perform surgery on Emma's fetus.
> 
> Written for LJ comm choc_fic, 2007. Done for the prompt "House, Eric Foreman/Allison Cameron, finally getting angry: Now that we've got that out in the open, get the hell away from me."

Eric Foreman had always prided himself on being observant. Back in the old neighborhood, he'd always been able to tell who might be the weak link, who might panic in the middle of a job, who might be the one to rat him out. It was his timing, not his people, who'd been the problem in the end. So how had he missed this? Chase and Cameron, literally under his nose--the two people with whom he'd spent more time than anyone else since he and Marcus used to toss a Nerf ball between their bunk beds to pass the time on long summer nights.

But Foreman had a feeling that House had known from the start, before the three of them had even exchanged ten words with each other, and had only waited for the chips to fall. Foreman envied that about House: his uncanny ability to see connections between people, between symptoms, between what his patients said and what they really did. Somehow, House, wretched bastard that he was, had been granted the power to notice all those invisible threads that held the world together, and it was something that could not be learned, something Foreman could not push himself to excel in no matter how hard he tried. That, Foreman thought, was what bothered him more than anything else.

The soft sound of Cameron's footsteps broke Foreman's reverie as he sat alone at the table in the Diagnostic Medicine office. Slowly, he turned to look at her as she stood beside him.

"You and Chase. What are you thinking?" It came out sounding harsher than he'd intended. Or not.

She was determined not to admit anything; he could see that much. "I heard about your little _tête-à-tête_ during the biopsy. And I'm touched by your concern, but it's none of your business."

"He told you everything already." This time the venom was real. Foreman rose from his seat and glowered at her. "Like it or not, this is my business. It's all of our business. In case you haven't noticed, we all work together. We spend hours cooped up in this place, and we can't--" Foreman broke off suddenly, afraid of what he might say if he continued.

"We can't what? Try to have any kind of normal life?" Cameron's eyes flashed.

She was so close that Foreman swore he could smell some kind of perfume on her, something like--oh _God_. It was Chase. It was Chase's bay rum cologne. "Normal life? Are you kidding? We hardly eat, we don't sleep, we work for a complete asshole who assaults patients, staff, and anybody else who crosses him. Oh, and we save a few lives along the way. Anything normal about that?"

"Or maybe you're just jealous it's not you," Cameron snapped.

Even while his mouth formed the words, Foreman pleaded with himself, _no, stop, this is a terrible idea_, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. "Maybe I am." The look on Cameron's face was almost worth it. But when she reached out to him, he pushed her hand away. "I don't need your pity. Just get the hell away from me."

As Foreman turned to leave, Chase strolled in past him and took a seat at the table. "Hey, you'd better sit down. Cuddy's back with House and they're heading up here. You know, he wasn't even going on vacation?" Chase looked at Foreman, then at Cameron, who was suddenly terribly busy by the coffeemaker. "So what's going on?"


End file.
